“Eleven months ago, Apple released the first iPad, a touchscreen handheld computer that redefined tablets, disrupting the laptop/desktop market just as the iPod did to music players and the iPhone did to smartphones. On Friday, 15 million iPads later, Apple released its successor, the iPad 2. Many people — myself included — predicted long lines and sell-outs, just like last year,” Michael deAgonia writes for Computerworld.
“So did Apple deliver?” deAgonia asks. “In a word, yes; more accurately: hell yes.”
“The first iPad wasn’t slow, even though competing devices (most announced without release dates) seemed to offer faster hardware. It has always been responsive, with minimal interface lag, if any. The iPad 2 takes this a step further,” deAgonia reports. “Featuring a new dual-core A5 chipset and double the memory (512MB instead of 256MB), everything feels faster, whether it’s app launching, data loading, switching between apps, rendering photo effects, or outputting projects in Garage Band. The speed boost affects everything. (While Apple hates dishing out specs, benchmarks indicate that not only is iPad 2 much faster than the first generation model, but it smokes the Motorola Xoom, as well.)”
“After a year of using that device, and speaking to other iPad owners… I have to say that the iPad may really be the closest thing to a perfect computer. I don’t say that lightly, either,” deAgonia writes. “If we were to define the Holy Grail of computing… it would be a device that can be pretty much anything to anyone — at home or at work — turn on instantly and operate day in and day out, without maintenance, fear of malware, or the need to troubleshoot. And it has to be portable, preferably held in a single hand. That, to me, is the Holy Grail of computing: a device not based around a checklist of hardware specs, but one that actually gets out of the way of doing stuff. Until the iPad arrived last year, such a device existed only in science fiction. The updated iPad 2, in concert with the App Store and a growing ecosystem of peripherals, completes the evolution. Compared to other tablets, it remains without rival.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Jai G.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Ars Technica reviews Apple iPad 2: Big performance gains in a slimmer package
iPad 2 benchmarks destroy Motorola Xoom – March 13, 2011
Associated Press reviews Apple iPad 2: Apple pulls further ahead – March 10, 2011
Ars Technica reviews Motorola Xoom: For the best tablet available today, look no further than Apple – March 7, 2011
PC Mag reviews Apple iPad 2: The tablet to get; Editors’ Choice – March 10, 2011
Associated Press reviews Apple iPad 2: Apple pulls further ahead – March 10, 2011
PC Mag reviews Apple iPad 2: The tablet to get; Editors’ Choice – March 10, 2011
Pogue reviews Apple iPad 2: Thinner, lighter, and faster transforms the experience – March 10, 2011
Baig reviews Apple iPad 2: Second to none – March 10, 2011
Funny that consumer reports can’t see the speed increase with the upgraded hardware on iPad2. One wonders what color their glasses are.
Pissy yellow.
Piss Yellow with a touch of Zune Brown! 😉
iQ
“One wonders what color their glasses are.”
Zune brown.
…cos they stuck up their own arses.
So slowly but surely iPad is being recognized for what it is.
Now “officially” being recognized as a computer, will the pundits revise Apple’s market share in personal cumputers?
Cumputers!
How exciting.
MDN: Is there a way to have the text size tool at the top of the article?. Also, it would be great to be able to ” booark” the last comment read. That way when you come back two hours later you can pick up at comment 9 and carry on.
Thanks
Jax44
Bookmark !!!
Damn
Distracted Jax? Haha 😉
Ahhh… bet you weren’t typing on an iPad 2. The holy grail would have definitely fixed that unholy typo. 😉
IPhone4, iPad delivers April 8th.
Booark! Booark!
I have Copyrighted Booark. You may use it.
I’d better make sure my Booark! license is paid up…
>> Insert picture of the Swedish Chef here <<
Hehehehehe needed that.. thanks all.
Oops : computers.
Freudian slip?
Freud wore a slip?!
I’m saying nothing breeze.
The comments over at Computerworld are hilarious. Windows fanboys a pitching a fit.
They are stoopid, Ballmer called tablets computers.
I know I couldn’t stand their comments. They were saying the iPad 2 sucks for the sake of saying it sucks. All of their so called “evidence” is the same old used excuses for why Windows/ Android is better. They call us fan boys and yet they are the ones who over react over a simple comment. Try having an actual discussion with one of them. MDN- I’m with my people 🙂
When discussing a tablet, there are better religious metaphors than the Holy Grail.
Also, we need to stop calling it a computer and start calling it a web/smart/connected appliance. Computers are complex, clunky, 20th century devices.
i have had my iPad for two days and love it!
In spite of the lousy resolution of the cameras and
the max capacity staying at 64GB, I am so tempted
to upgrade to an iPad 2.
Help me somebody! I need an intervention. 🙂
Do you need a push. Go on. Get tour credit card out. 😉
Your. Not mine. Yours!
FaceTime is awesome.
Poor windows guys; they’re catching on! Can’t wait to get mine (1-2 weeks now.)
OT: will “4G” networks be able to run FaceTime?
With Home Sharing I think capacity is not an issue as much now. cameras are ideal for purpose – FaceTIme.
Don’t hesitate – buy one!
I’ll probably never fill up the 64GB I have. I thought I’d need it to carry around a lot of movies, but i don’t. I have a few movies actually on the drive but the rest I stream. Sure, if you’re going on a flight or something, you bring some more movies along, but they don’t need to live on there forever. Then there’re a ton of music I put on it to have on the road, but I think I still have 20 GB left.
I wish I had a bigger iPhone 4 because I shoot a lot of videos with it, so maybe that’s a reason to have a bigger iPad 2, but still not much of one. That’s a lot of video.
Stop worrying about onboard storage, it’s becoming less of an issue all the time.
“Then *there’s* a ton of music…”
Carry on.
I’m about to use most of that 64GB downloading 3 cameras worth of nonstop photo taking and unedited movie shooting. With three of us shooting we may just max it out.
I always wanted to go to the Galapagos.
And then there is GarageBand at 369mb
It all goes so quickly.
daugav369pils
If you don’t have an iPad, . . . than yes, you should get one. If you have the classic iPad, then just download Garage Band. That should keep you busy until the next version.
Ahhh GarageBand… probably the BEST piece of software I have seen in a long time.
Kudos to Apple for bringing GB to the iPad. I salute you!
Even better than reading a glowing review of an Apple product on Computerworld is reading the sonic wall of bitching unleashed in the comments. It’s like what happens after you step on an anthill. Hilarious.
I know. As long as tech reviewers say amazing things about Windows/ Android (not likely) devices then all is well. But any reviewer that says he likes an Apple product is labeled a fanboy, untrustworthy, getting something from Apple….
I would like articles that bring up Flash to note that Honeycomb can’t support yet either, although they advertise it. Without resolving mouse hover no touch screen can do all of flash, espicaly the games. Until RIM and HP prove that they can run flash on a tablet, let alone prove they have a product then no tablet can run Flash.
It’s hilarious how they’re calling CW out for getting kickbacks from Apple. And the prevailing sentiment seems to be that the good and wise geeks are going to wait for their far-superior Honeycomb/FruitLoop/AppleJax tablets… ‘or better yet, Windows 7/8’!
You have to be some kind of terrible psychotic to think any of this makes sense.
Hehehe everyone remarking about these fandroidtard / windoze zealots are making me interested to click on the article. I hope it’s not easy to make comments there I need to get productive this evening and study, lol!
The best thing about Apple product reviews on PeeCee centric sites are the comments sections.
Hilarious.
The comments on that article are really funny. Android people are especially dimwitted, it seems. I should make a short film (on my iPad): “Waiting for Honeycomb.” Some poor schlub stands still while the world passes him by.
Windows’s day in the sun is over, and they just can’t handle it.